PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency together with the Dutch Royal Meteorological Institute (KNMI) and science journalist Marcel Crok launched their joint website ClimateDialogue.org - an international blog where invited scientists discuss controversial topics in climate science. There are several blogs that facilitate discussions between climate experts, but since the climate debate is highly polarised and politicised, blog discussions between experts with opposing views are rare.

ClimateDialogue.org is the result of a request by the Dutch parliament to facilitate the scientific discussions between climate experts representing the full range of views on the subject. It is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment.

The aim of ClimateDialogue.org is to establish what the discussants agree on, where disagreements remain and what the possible or likely reasons behind these disagreements are. The project by no means aims to solve controversies nor give an objective, scientific final judgment on the topics under discussion.

ClimateDialogue.org will kick off with a discussion on the causes of the rapid decline of the Arctic sea ice as well as the question when the Arctic sea could be ice-free during the summer months. The experts invited to this discussion hold widely different views on the latter; their estimates range from 2016 to the end of the 21st century and beyond.

In the coming months, ClimateDialogue.org will host discussions on such topics as climate sensitivity to CO2, sea level rise, the reliability of temperature measurements, the reliability and usefulness of climate models, and the extent to which oceans can store heat.